Topic archive
History
Two hundred years and counting! Loretto has responded to the call of God to serve God’s people. From children to adults, from elementary to graduate-level education, from eldercare to advocacy for the homelessness and underserved, Loretto has left its mark on the world as it seeks to “work for justice and act for peace.” Learn more about the history of Loretto.
Loretto Responds to the Gospel Call for 210 Years: One Journey to Everywhere
Followers of Jesus have responsibilities, and if they are smart they never do them alone. Loretto has been graced by God to become a community on pilgrimage. We have walked together and believed in each other on every journey we…
Slaveholding in Loretto’s history: Honoring the sacredness of human dignity
We gathered in our home church to see and hear with our hearts a tragic reality about our homeplace, that these grounds have been a place of wounding for many individuals of dignity and worth. Eleanor Craig SL This past…
“Our Lady of Light” Finds a Permanent Home in Santa Fe
Many Loretto Community members may remember the painting “Our Lady of Light” that hung in the convent in Santa Fe, N.M., and then at St. Mary’s Academy and the Loretto Center in Denver. This beloved work has made many moves…
The Sisters Who Left for Chicago
On June 9, 1864, a Sister once lauded as “the idol and admiration of all those under her care” walked out of the Loretto convent in Cairo, Illinois, taking with her three other Sisters of Loretto.1 Their departure was unauthorized,…
Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification at Loretto Motherhouse
The Loretto Community is pleased to share through social media some highlights of the Ritual of Remembrance and Sanctification that took place November 2021 at our Kentucky Motherhouse. Through this ritual and particularly through the Ancestor Spirit Portraits installed in…
“Christmas Always”: A Loretto Heritage Center Christmas Treasure
The holiday season is once again upon us, and the Heritage Center would like to share one of the many treasures in our collection. The Heritage Center houses a large collection of books authored by Loretto Sisters. While many of…
Take a Break and Discover Rich History of the Loretto Community
Located on the grounds of the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Ky., the Heritage Center houses documents and artifacts from the 200-plus year history of the Sisters of Loretto and Loretto Community. Visiting the museum and researching in our archival collections…
Flames of love and commitment burn on after war
Standing with the adoptees … now grown By Mary Louise Denny SL There is often a deeply rooted need for a sense of belonging. Susan Carol McDonald SL knew this and made every effort to connect adoptees throughout the world.…
A life lived for the sake of the other
In May 1973, 28-year-old Susan Carol McDonald SL arrived in Vietnam to work with Rosemary Taylor, an Australian nurse who had been caring for orphans and arranging for their adoptions since 1968. Susan, a registered nurse, was asked to take…
Working toward healing
Building a preschool in Vietnam Paulette Peterson CoL had started preschools in the U.S., so when she arrived in Vietnam in 1974, she went to work establishing a preschool at an orphanage. She teamed up with a local woman to…
A miracle meeting brings sweet tears
1973, Saigon, Vietnam, New Haven Nursery The newborn was dropped off at New Haven Nursery where Susan Carol McDonald SL was the director. She logged the baby into her register, as she did with every arrival. “Name: Frank Antoine. Arrival…
On the ground as the North Vietnamese army advanced
Aiding orphans in Vietnam wasn’t new to Ruth Routten CoL, an American Airlines flight attendant who, on her days off, had escorted children from Vietnam to adoptive families starting in 1973. After the C-5A crash in early April 1975, when…